BAKER REPEATS HE HOPES PRIME HIKE TEMPORARY
  Treasury Secretary James Baker
  reiterated his hope that this week's rise in prime rates would
  be a temporary blip upwards.
      "I would hope that it would simply be a temporary blip
  upward as we've seen in the past," Baker said in television
  interview with the Cable News Network. The interview airs
  tomorrow but CNN released extracts from his remarks today.
      Baker also repeated his position that the reaction of
  financial markets to U.S. tariffs on Japanese electronic goods
  showed "the importance of the United States not going
  protectionist. The markets were telling us...be careful."